• I am a new gun owner, licensed for concealed carry.
• I got interested in purchasing a handgun this year for the first time since VietNam! I am more used to rifles, although owning as a kid was a single-shot .22 caliber, handguns felt difficult to control. After the service, I wanted nothing to do with weapons or the military and just wanted to forget. I think what happened at the Capitol building this year is what took me over the edge along with all the violence around the country that I never visualized before.
• I have reviewed most of the online training that I could and purchased my first handgun, since my required formal concealed-carry training. Outside of the service, a gun club with NRA membership as a teenager, I had no formal training prior to concealed carry training.
• My first and current handgun is an S&W M&P 9mm EZ. I just recently personally fitted it with a red-dot but haven’t yet fired at a range. Prior to the Red-Dot, I fired only 50 rounds with iron sights on this gun.
• For the most part, my immediate family is rather against a firearm of any type in the home. My adult kids are 50-50 for it/against it. I think, for the most part, is why I waited until now for ownership and what are my plans for its use.
• I do plan to carry concealed for times I am venturing out, especially if into any untraveled wooded areas. I may plan on some out-of-state trips as well, but nothing is decided upon at this time. For my State, since I am not into the city, there is not the climate I am concerned with around the country.
• Since becoming a USCCA member and utilizing my new abilities, I have picked up what I could online. Some of what has made me feel like it was the right thing to do (perhaps I should have so many years ago, was the knowledge I have received. The discipline, mental control, family security, and safety knowledge are some of what I have gained since this decision to conceal carry.